We have received documents from a military source indicating that U.S. Postal Service facilities across the country are expanding the construction of secretive criminal investigation rooms, which some fear will be used to detain American citizens in the event of a national emergency, bioterror attack or pandemic.

The documents (PDF) show architectural floor plans for criminal investigation rooms that would be housed within existing U.S. Postal Service buildings. The blueprints show “secret rooms” within post offices where, the source claims, “families will be separated” in the event of martial law being declared.

The United States Postal Service undoubtedly uses such “criminal investigative units” to conduct investigations into mail fraud through its federal enforcement arm, the United States Postal Inspection Service, but as with many things of this nature, everything serves a dual purpose.

The fact that such rooms are being constructed inside post offices is verified. We discovered this web page which talks about how an architecture firm called IPG Architects constructed a “Criminal Investigative Office” within the Macon Post Office in Macon, Georgia. The new documents describe similar rooms being constructed in Lake Forest, Illinois and Gurnee, Illinois.